This expansion of the beard-sporting, craft brew-loving crowd, to which Goodfriend and its fellow retailers appeal, may have been the inspiration for the graffiti artist who tagged the back of the “T” store, located in between the two shopping strips, with the message, “Don’t hipster me, bro.” (The graffiti already has been removed.)

Councilman Mark Clayton, who is decidedly not a hipster, has nevertheless championed the cause of this burgeoning intersection — in particular, working with city staff to crack down on the “T” store, which he calls “the gas station that doesn’t serve gas.” He has also referred to the store as a “bad seed.”

Garland-Peavy received a lot of local buzz from one other news-making event: last October’s violent and tragic murder of 18-year-old Zoe Hastings, whose killer is believed to have coerced himself into her car at the Garland-Peavy Walgreens. A direct connection to the T store next door wasn’t made in news coverage or police reports, but the high-profile case amplified the store’s presence and its suspected derelictions.

The city can’t shut down businesses at will, but it can throw the book at them, and Clayton did just that. At his recent State of the District meeting, he highlighted ways the city took action: Dallas Police issued a warrant for illegal gambling. They seized eight liner gambling machines. Dallas Fire Rescue removed the underground fuel tanks per Texas Commission on Environmental Quality instructions. City of Dallas health and code inspectors identified and addressed safety hazards. Then the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission began reviewing the store’s permit.

Ultimately, the owner “voluntarily” gave up his liquor license, Clayton says, and decided to close the store and sell the property. The announcement of the T store’s closure on his Facebook page received ecstatic responses.

In addition to its work on the T store, the city removed brush and cleaned up the southeast corner of Garland-Peavy, upgraded the DART bus stop on that corner, and replaced light bulbs and street lights on Peavy between Garland Road and Lake Highlands Drive.

And that’s not the end of it. In the near future will be more street lighting, a new median, street re-striping, traffic flow improvements, safety improvements for pedestrians and a MOWmentum project, on which Clayton is partnering with Goodfriend’s Tobin.

As Clayton noted on his Facebook page after GAPCo’s announcement, “The Peavy/Garland area in Dallas District 9 keeps getting better.”

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